Three traveling salesmen, short on money, decide to share a room in a really cheap flea-bag hotel.
The desk clerk tells them the room is $30, payable in advance, so they each give him a $10 bill and retire for the night.
Then the desk clerk realizes that he overcharged the salesmen; the room should have been $25. He gives the bellhop five singles, with instructions to give the money to the salesmen.
The bellhop is a bit dishonest, however, and tells the salesmen that they are due a refund of $3. He gives $1 to each salesman, and keeps the other $2 for himself.
So each salesman has paid a net amount of $9, or $27 for all three. The bellhop has $2.
Question: what happened to the other dollar of the original $30?
Tink, I think the spurious 'missing' dollar has to do with the fact that the original $30 is no longer a part of anyone's bookkeeping, it's vestigial!
So to the desk clerk the operative rent is now $25, and to the salesmen $27 -- and that difference is neatly accounted for by the bellhop's larceny.
But my congratulations to the devious mind who ever devised such an intriguing situation...
Very good, Virginia!
The spurious bookkeeping of the puzzle can easily be seen if the bellhop keeps the entire $5. In that case, by the puzzle's reasoning, the salesmen paid $30 and the bellhop has $5, for a "total" of $35. Where did the "extra" $5 come from?
Yes, that exposes the flaw neatly
The way they print money these days.. - devaluation?
Oh this s the absolutely perfect answer!
It’s Science...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_dollar_riddle
Can’t believe someone has written an in depth analysis of this...